Painter Amrita Sher-Gil's life to be honored in a month-long exhibition by NGMA

Mumbai: It was in 1936 that Amrita Sher-Gil’s Group of Three Girls won a gold medal at Bombay Art Society’s 46th annual exhibition. This was just one of the milestones that the late 28-year-old artist achieved. To mark the centenary celebration of Amrita’s career, the National Gallery of Modern Art (NGMA) launched a month-long exhibition titled Amrita Sher-Gil: The Passionate Quest on Saturday.

Art historian Yashodhara Dalmia has curated the exhibition, which comprises 95 works. Yashodhara divided the works into four perspectives: Threshold, Icon and Iconoclastic, Hungarian Manifestation and Indian Journey.

At the age of 16, Amrita shifted to Italy with her mother after she expressed her desire to learn painting. There she studied at the Grande Chaumiere under Pierre Vaillant and Lucien Simon and later at École des Beaux-Arts (1930–34) where she was inspired by artists Paul Cézanne and Paul Gauguin. Her works during her Parisian years are also a part of the current exhibition. Yashodhara said, “The outstanding works, when she just started painting, present such sensuousness and elasticity. You see a glimpse of her in her works, whether she was troubled or excited, she was always intensely involved with each of her works. She merged her Western training with Indian art. This is the magnitude of her achievement, where she crosses boundaries with her language.”

In 1934, the artist came to India, after she believed that “in some strange way that there lay my destiny as a painter.” It was on her return that she rediscovered and reinvent herself as an artist. Her trips to Ajanta and Ellora brought about a marked change in her works — she introduced classical Indian art in her work. Her works during this time-period include Bride’s Toilet, Brahmacharis, and South Indian Villagers Going to Market.

The artist, decided to shift to Lahore with her husband Victor Egan in 1941, which was considered to be a major cultural center, and very much a part of India. However, just days before her first solo show in Lahore, she met with a tragic death in December. Pheroza Godrej, chairperson of advisory committee of NGMA said, “There is variety, depth and physicality in her works. One should look at the number of self-portraits that she has painted. She was a maverick, enigmatic, a daredevil, a feminist and more. She experienced life to the fullest. She formally started her work at 16 and left us at 28: What a body of work she has left behind.”The exhibition was showcased in Bengaluru and New Delhi before it came come to the city.